Was reading some of the other threads on question quality (I kind of like the idea about a mandatory advice page) and another on making WooCommerce questions off-topic (I like WooCommerce and WooCommerce questions, but a lot of them are terrible questions ) and I was thinking about just how many times I have commented on question to inform the poster that plugin recommendations are off-topic.

Anyway, all this was to say that I've been thinking about how to improve question quality without being overly elitist and restrictive to new users. A lot of badges and abilities are 'unlocked' on this site as your cred goes up. What if you had to have a minimum rep score to ask a question?

By itself that might be elitist, since new users might not be able to answer other people's questions to earn rep. However, if we gave rep for reading the FAQ, reading some mandatory question advice, passing quizzes on both, completing your profile, etc. then new users could earn the right to ask questions and submit themselves to a bit of mandatory training in the process.

Some sample quiz questions could be:

Why is the following question off-topic?

I'm looking for a plugin that will let me show a slider on my
homepage?

A. recommendation B. bad spelling C. rocketships

Or

Pick the more descriptive title

A. My site doesn't work B. I'm getting white screen of death when
activating plugin X

I don't think that would be too much to ask a new user to do, since you'd only have to do it once and ultimately it is in their benefit as they're more likely to get a helpful answer if they as a better question.

Good to know. I guess I will just have to agree to disagree with that principle.... to some extent anyway. I want new people to be able to participate, but I think it is worth their while to know how to participate well. You don't put a guy into a basketball game until he knows a few of the rules.
– helgathevikingJul 26 '13 at 16:13

1

@helgatheviking I don't disagree with logic and there very well might be sites where it would work wonderfully, but it just clashes with what is already in place at SE
– RarstJul 26 '13 at 16:19